Good morning, Wycombe!
The ‘Ber months have officially arrived, which means I’m fantasising about autumnal flavoured coffees while the kids earnestly discuss Halloween strategy (i.e.: which neighbours stock full-sized Mars Bars).
But Wycombe is still full of that end of summer goodness this week:
🎶 First Friday lands on the High Street
💃🏻 An eco-fashion show is taking over Patch
⛪️ What’s behind the corrugated iron at All Saints Church?
Plus 53 things to do this September and what the council’s been up to…
🤣 Select Comedy Club Is Back At Patch — Thurs 10th September 😂
Proper stand-up. Cheap tickets. Good drinks. A night out in Wycombe that actually delivers.
Select Comedy Club is back after its summer break with acclaimed acts, local legends and circuit stars.
🎭 Headliner: Caitriona Dowden — one of the fastest-rising stars on the circuit, nominated for Best Newcomer at last year's Edinburgh Fringe and winner of the 2022 Chortle Student Comedy Award. 'Irresistibly idiosyncratic' - The Wee Review
🎙️ Jamie Mykaela — award-winning comedy-cabaret performer fresh from her Off-West-End debut in Age of the Hero, and a Musical Comedy Awards Semi-Finalist
🎤 Elliot Wengler as your lovable local host — Hardee Comic Originality Award nominee
With local acts in the supporting slots to be revealed on the night!
📍 Patch High Wycombe, Old Library Building
📅 Thursday 10 September — doors 7.30pm, show 8pm
🎟️ £10 per ticket, or grab the 2-for-£15 earlybird deal before 5 September
💌 Wycombe Pulse readers get £3 off with code PULSE — £7 each, or 2 for £12 if you catch the earlybird!
Earlybird tickets are going fast — don’t leave it too late!
Editor’s Highlights
📍 Patch | 🗓️ Sat 5th September, 6pm–9pm
A runway night given over entirely to upcycled and recycled fashion, put together by The Tired Dressmaker and Wycombe Creatives. I’ll be heading down the catwalk, so come and heckle! £5 on entry, with all proceeds going towards the Wyrd Wycombe event.
📍 Patch (Cafe Space) | 🗓️ Wed 9th Sept, 6:30pm
A friendly evening workshop with local artist Rory Neary about how to add watercolours to your sketches — whatever your experience level.
📍 High Wycombe High Street | 🗓️ Sun 6th Sept, 11am–4pm
Bucks Markets' monthly Sunday Market fills the High Street with stalls, plus live music with a flatbed-trailer gig from beloved Beatles tribute act The Dung Beatles.
📍 Patch | 🗓️ Fri 4 Sep, 7pm (film at 7:30pm)
The inaugural Film Club screens Wall-E to tie in with Zero Waste week, followed by a chat covering fun facts, Easter eggs and industry insights.
🦢 First Friday: With Friends, With Family, For Fun 🎶
This Friday, 4 September, head into town from 5–7pm and see what you find…
First Friday starts around the Guildhall — music, a place to sit, people to bump into — then it's up to you: to and fro your own way (cue the Fleetwood Mac).
📅 Friday 4 September, 5–7pm
📍 Starting at the Guildhall, High Street
🎟️ Free — no ticket needed
Stay for the music, grab a seat, strike up a conversation.
Or just pass through on your way to Tesco and see what's going on. There’s no set programme here; stay a little longer, leave a little later.
September's the first one. Come and see what it feels like.
🪶 See you there?
Wellness Moments
🌿 Finding Meaning & Purpose in Retirement
📍 The Front Room | 📅 Tues 8th Sept, 2.30pm
A psychologist-led workshop for anyone navigating retirement, looking at how the change affects wellbeing and sharing practical coping techniques
🔔 Sound Baths
Settling Back 📍 Hughenden Village Hall | 📅 Fri 4th September, 7.30pm
Sunday Sound Sanctuary 📍 Cedar Barn Hall | 🗓️ Sun 6th Sept, 7pm
Hazlemere Monthly Sound Bath 📍 Hazlemere Recreation Memorial Hall | 🗓️ Fri 4 Sep, 7:30pm
🧘🏻♀️ 6-Week Beginners Yoga Course
📍 Wycombe High School | 🗓️ Wednesdays from 9th Sept, 7pm
A relaxed six-week course for complete beginners, or anyone who's felt too stiff, stressed or nervous to join a mixed-level class.
Get Creative
📸 Wycombe Photographic Society
📍 Hughenden Valley Village Hall | 🗓️ Wed 9th September, 8pm
The start of the 2026/27 season — anyone with an interest in photography is welcome, whatever your experience or kit. Expect talks, workshops and informal show-and-tell evenings.
🎵 High Wycombe Choral Society - New Singers Welcome
📍 Trinity United Reformed Church | 🗓️ Mondays from 7 Sep, 7:45pm
New term, new voices welcome - this term the choir is working on Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, Bairstow's Blessed City Heavenly Salem and Rutter's Requiem, building to a concert at All Saints on 21 Nov.
🎨 The High Wycombe Painting Club
📍 High Street | 🗓️ Sun 6th September, 10am–1pm
A new fortnightly painting club launches on the High Street — paint what you fancy, meet people doing the same. No lessons, no booking, easels and basic materials provided.
⛪️ Why All Saints is wrapped in corrugated iron
I recently shared the artwork that's gone up on the corrugated iron at All Saints — painted by a team of local volunteers. It looks beautiful. But it's covering something All Saints would much rather you could see: the South Porch, originally built in 1273 and restored in the 19th century.
The porch has been a problem since 2013, when a survey found the stonework deteriorating. Various measures were taken in the years since to protect and maintain it, at no small cost.
Then in 2019 someone pulled the wrought-iron gates out of their mountings. What looked like a straightforward insurance claim turned out to be far worse — the force destabilised the whole structure. The porch has been propped up ever since and is now an emergency exit only, with the scaffolding and cladding put up to protect people from falling masonry.
A full repair and restoration plan has been prepared — but it could cost more than £500,000. Church members are contributing but it's a big number for one congregation.
👉 If you'd like to help, you can donate to the appeal here.
🔍 Family Fun Finder
🎓Tez Ilyas: Road to Success – Talk with Q&A
📍 Wycombe Arts Centre | 📅 Sat 5th Sept, 1.30pm
Comedian and writer Tez Ilyas talks to 16-24 year olds about turning creative ambitions into a career, followed by Q&A and a meet & greet. Free — parents/carers can come along too.
🦸 Books and Boogie
📍 Patch | 🗓️ Sun 6th Sept, 11:30am
A zero-waste-themed storytime and boogie for little ones, reading and playing along with "Who Swallowed Stanley". Free, just turn up.
Entertainment
🎵 Mad Squirrel's 10th Birthday
📍 Mad Squirrel | 🗓️ Sat 5 Sep, from 6pm
Ten years of Mad Squirrel! Sumo beer is back at 2016 prices, and the anthems play until midnight.
🎭 Cabaret with Luna Cortez
📍 O'Neill's | 🗓️ Fri 4 Sep, 9pm
Queen Luna brings the biggest lungs in the building for a proper cabaret send-off to the week.
🎱 Bingo Night
📍 The Front Room | 🗓️ Fri 4 Sep, 7:30pm
A proper Friday night bingo session with cocktails on hand.
Council Catch-up
🏛️ High Wycombe Town Committee (HWTC) meets 8 September – agenda, Q1 Special Expenses Report and the HWTC Priorities Update. The headline: a £932,415 reserve, of which £450,000 was released for local projects back in January 2025 — but 19 months on, only 23% of that pot has actually been spent. Even if every outstanding and pipeline project goes ahead, £188.9k would still be left uncommitted. The Priorities Update tracks 13 priorities against that same pot, with Appendix 2 breaking down spend by project. Members will be asked to meet informally, outside the committee, to discuss future spending priorities. Also on the agenda: night-time economy and parking updates, a Neighbourhood Plan update, and a "Resilience in Wycombe" discussion after the summer heatwaves.
🛠️ Shutters at Al Medina Foods Market — retrospective permission is sought for three metal roller shutters, amongst other work already done, at 31–32 High Street, in the town centre conservation area. The applicant's heritage statement argues the High Street's decline and the site's previous use as a Jobcentre Plus support approval, and that the shutters — closed only overnight — don't harm the listed buildings either side. Application · Design and Access and Heritage Statement
🏡 Local Plan consultation closes Sunday — Five days left to comment on the Regulation 19 Draft Local Plan for Buckinghamshire 2045, setting out roughly 91,000 homes and 270 hectares of employment land, with High Wycombe earmarked for a "thriving town centre" push. Closes 11.59pm, 6 September. Reg 19 consultation
Sports & Activities
🏃 Cuban Salsa for Beginners and Beyond
📍 JB's Bar & Cafe, Booker Judo Centre | 🗓️ Mon 7th September, 8pm
A Cuban salsa class for beginners and up, every Monday evening — no partner or shoes required, £8 on the door.
Community Notes
🌿 Free No Dig Workshop
📍 Back Lane Allotments | 🗓️ Mon 7th Sept, 6pm
Hands-on session on no-dig growing — less digging, fewer weeds, healthier soil — at a community allotment that's been growing this way for five years. Chat with experienced growers and get stuck in.
🌍 Digital Waste Workshop
📍 Patch | 🗓️ Mon 7th Sept, 9:30am
Build an understanding of the impact of digital waste, with guidance from B Other Wise on the community and business sustainability angle. Led by Muryel Boulay and Jon Cullum. Free.
Business News
New opening: Eva Luxe Aesthetics has opened inside LUXE Spa Land at 29–31 Crendon Street. Owner Eva has spent months getting the space ready, and throughout September she's offering 15–20% off treatments to mark the opening. To book, DM Eva Luxe Aesthetics on Instagram.
Closing: Yates announced yesterday that they were closing, with their last day of trade scheduled for 26th September.
🎓 The Marketing Meetup: IRL Buckinghamshire
📍 Patch | 🗓️ Wed 9th Sept, 6pm
A community meetup for marketers and local business owners, built around connection and support.
🌳 Chiltern Rangers submit plans for a new permanent HQ
🖼️ 20+ local artists take over Hughenden Manor this month
🪶 I’ve been finding traces dotted around town all week…
🎸 Wycombe’s very own music festival is back this September
🎈 Birthday party idea: hire out Patch
🍳 Olive Tree is launching a breakfast menu
📅 Dates for your diary
September's stacked. We've pulled together 53 things to do in and around Wycombe this month, from sound baths and sparkling wine masterclasses to a workshop where you cast your own Bronze Age axe head. Read the full September round-up →
🏃The Chilterns' New Hike & Pub Club
📍 The Lee | 📅 Sat 3rd Oct, ~1pm
First hike is around The Lee followed by a pint at the local. Solo walkers and newcomers welcome; no ticket link, just drop them a DM to join.
🎄High Wycombe Christmas Lights Switch-On
📍 Town centre | 📅 Sat 14th Nov
Mark it in the diary now!
The Wycombe Wordle
Six guesses. Five letters. One Wycombe connection. Let me know if you get it!
🟩 Right letter, right spot
🟨 Right letter, wrong spot
⬜ Not in the word
That’s a wrap for this week’s Pulse!
Have a fabulous weekend — but before you dash…
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See you next Thursday,
Steph
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